09-19-2017, 03:26 PM
(09-19-2017, 03:11 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(09-19-2017, 02:14 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: This is a restructuring, not a liquidation. The store will stay around.
I think it's more of a competitive market driving a poor competitor out of business than a sign of industry decline. The shopping experience at Toys'R'Us is fine for the kids, but terrible for the parents: the store arrangements seem like they are specifically designed to make parents lose track of their kids if they let them get more than about 20 feet away. Contrast that with the Lego Store, which is not only arranged with good sight lines for keeping track of kids, but also has a minder at the front of the store to prevent kids from escaping.
I'm happy to take the kids to the Lego Store or even the Barnes & Noble toy section, but if we're going to Toys'R'Us, I generally require them to know exactly what they are buying, and to agree not to browse, so as to minimize the chances of getting separated.
I haven't been in a Toys 'R' Us store for years. I don't like to plug commercial products of any kind, but at least one can make something out of the Lego blocks and use some imagination, and maybe learn a little about geometry. Toys 'R' us largely sells packaged toys with only one obvious use. Parents are generally getting wiser about such toys being of limited value as playthings.
Toys 'R' Us is an older business model which has not changed to adapt to the realities of the parent-and-child relationship. If you are not going to let your children browse, then for them to look at all the wares they will have to take you along... and you will get bored very fast. You will want to leave.
A basic secret of retailing is to get people to spend as much time as possible in the store before they leave. Stoke their curiosity, and let people get add-ons because they see an impulse purchase worth spending a small amount on.
Obsolete business models have a way of dying at a certain point. Tradition is not a selling point in retail.
My kids are 5, 7, and 9, so they're at a prime toy buying age. We have a practice which may be unusual: we give them money for doing workbook pages, and they buy their own toys, except for birthdays and Christmas. That means they get to choose their own toys.
Toys'R'Us is the favorite toy store of one or two of them. It has Lego, but it also has lots of other things. The problem is the arrangement. They'd love to browse, and I wouldn't mind spending more time there if I could look at toys instead of watching the kids, but the arrangement is such that I have to watch the kids like a hawk or they will get separated and it will be almost impossible to get them back together. It's unfriendly to parents rather than unfriendly to kids.
I suppose it would be fine if modern society allowed kids to go to the toy store by themselves, but that's frowned on now. It's also fine for adults shopping without their kids, but as you say, Toys'R'Us tends to carry cheap stuff, so if a parent comes in for one toy, they're not going to spend much.
Incidentally, the 9 year old buys inexpensive solid plastic toys, and has a whole neighborhood in her bedroom. Meanwhile, Legos now come in preset kits, so they involve less imagination than before. I've sometimes bought lots of loose legos for castle building, but that's still a bit expensive. Ultimately, the toys are what the kids make of them, though.